Sofonías 3:1-20

Ahora el Señor habla contra Jerusalén.

¡Ay de la inmunda y contaminada, de la ciudad opresora! Ella no obedeció la voz; ella no recibe corrección; ella no confió en el SEÑOR; no se acercó a su Dios ( Sofonías 3:1-2 ).

Así que la acusación de Dios contra ella: no escucharía, no obedecería, no recibiría corrección, no confiaría en el Señor, no se acercaría a Dios.

Sus príncipes dentro de ella son como leones rugientes; sus jueces son lobos vespertinos; no roen los huesos hasta el día siguiente. Sus profetas son personas ligeras y traicioneras; sus sacerdotes han profanado el santuario, han violado la ley ( Sofonías 3:3-4 ).

Ahora encontramos que estas son las mismas acusaciones que Jeremías estaba trayendo contra la nación y contra Jerusalén en su profecía. Recuerdas cómo Jeremías tuvo dificultades con estos falsos profetas que venían al rey y decían: "Oh, rey, vas a estar empujando a los babilonios por todos lados. No se acercarán aquí" y todo eso. Y cómo estaban conspirando contra Jeremías porque se atrevió a ponerse de pie y decir la verdad. Así que aquí Sofonías habla de sus profetas: son personas ligeras y traicioneras, sus sacerdotes han profanado el santuario, han violado la ley.

Jehová justo está en medio de ella; y no hará iniquidad: cada mañana saca a luz su juicio, no falla; pero el injusto no conoce la vergüenza. He talado las naciones: sus torres están asoladas; Destruí sus calles, de modo que nadie pasa por alto: sus ciudades están asoladas, de modo que no hay hombre, no hay habitante. Dije: Seguramente me temerás, recibirás instrucción; para que su morada no fuera destruida, por mucho que yo los castigara; antes madrugaban y corrompían sus obras ( Sofonías 3:5-7 ).

Dios tiene la intención, en realidad, de que el juicio sea para la corrección, en primer lugar. Cuando comenzamos a salirnos de la línea, muchas veces Dios trae juicio en forma de castigo a nuestras vidas. El propósito de esto es volvernos a Dios. Pero es trágico que tanta gente, cuando Dios está trayendo la vara de castigo, muchas veces se rebele contra el Señor, y así, su condición solo empeora. Pero el Señor dijo: "Cuando mis juicios estén en la tierra, hará que mi pueblo se vuelva a la justicia". Un verdadero hijo de Dios, cuando comienza a ver los juicios, se vuelve a Dios. Pero aquí el Señor habla de Sus juicios y de cómo se corrompieron aún más.

Por lo tanto ( Sofonías 3:8 )

Ahora salimos al futuro, el gran juicio de las naciones que viene.

Esperad en mí, dice Jehová, hasta el día en que me levante a la presa; porque mi determinación es juntar las naciones, para juntar los reinos, para derramar sobre ellos mi ira ( Sofonías 3:8 ),

Como te dijimos, la palabra indignación en el Antiguo Testamento es el equivalente a la Gran Tribulación del Nuevo Testamento. Así que aquí Dios está hablando del período de la Gran Tribulación mientras reúne a las naciones. Por supuesto, reunirlos en el gran valle de Meguido para la gran batalla de Armagedón. “Donde derramaré sobre ellos toda mi indignación, y todo el ardor de mi ira”.

porque la tierra será consumida por el fuego de mi celo. Porque entonces daré a los pueblos un lenguaje puro, para que invoquen el nombre del Señor, para que le sirvan de común acuerdo ( Sofonías 3:8-9 ).

Ahora, originalmente todos los hombres hablaban un idioma. Pero en la torre de Babel, mientras los hombres a través de un tremendo progreso científico estaban construyendo estas torres de comunicación, para una comunicación extra estelar, para comunicarse con la gente en el espacio, para aprender de aquellos en el espacio. Ustedes recuerdan que cuando el Señor miró la escena de la construcción de la torre de Babel, habló de cómo los hombres que se reunían habían avanzado tanto en su tecnología que nada de lo que habían decidido hacer podía negarse.

Entonces, para frustrar al hombre de sus planes tortuosos, Dios trajo la confusión de lenguas y la separación en grupos étnicos por idioma en todo el mundo. Ahora se acerca el día en que vamos a hablar de nuevo un lenguaje puro.
Me pareció bastante interesante cuando nuestro guía hebreo nos dijo que no había palabrotas en hebreo. Si un judío quiere jurar, tiene que usar el inglés. No tienen palabrotas en hebreo.

Estábamos en el Hospital Hadassah en el Monte Scopus y escuchamos a este médico hablando en hebreo. Mientras hablaba con sus colegas, dejó escapar una serie de juramentos que entendí en inglés. Así que me volví hacia mi esposa y le dije: "Supongo que es verdad, la única forma en que pueden jurar es en inglés". Por supuesto, se sintió muy avergonzado, pero pensé que eso era bastante interesante. Un idioma en el que no hay palabrotas. Tal vez ese es el lenguaje puro. "Pero el Señor dará al pueblo un lenguaje puro, para que todos invoquen el nombre del Señor para servirle con un consentimiento", o con una sola voz.

From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring my offering. In that day shall thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.

And the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none will make them afraid (Sofonías 3:10-13).

Now notice again the sequence, God's judgment, the indignation that is going to come, but followed by the new age; the one language, the restoration of the earth to God's order, and God's plan. Of course, then going on into verse Sofonías 3:14, the glorious day of the Lord, the day that the Lord comes and establishes His kingdom upon the earth.

Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. For the LORD has taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out your enemy: the King of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: and thou shalt see evil no more (Sofonías 3:14-15).

That glorious day when Jesus comes and reigns, the Lord dwelling in the midst of His people once again, even as He did when He was upon the earth two thousand years ago. The word made flesh and dwelt among us. He was in the world, the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. So the Lord dwelling in the midst of the people, the rejoicing, the singing, the glory of that wonderful day.

And in that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Don't fear: and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. For the LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing (Sofonías 3:16-17).

So the attention is drawn now to the Lord in the midst of His people. First of all, His mighty power is made mention. "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty." Then His work, "He will save."
Really, the world today is in dire need of salvation. Man has gone just about as far as he can go without destroying everything. Man presently is spending one trillion dollars a year on military weapons.

It's bankrupting the whole world. Our economy is bankrupt. The Russians' economy is bankrupt. Because we are spending so much money in our military budgets, we are bankrupting our world. A hundred and three billion dollars of deficit spending on this year alone for the defense projects. In fact, we're spending even more than that for defense. They have asked for one trillion dollars for defense over the next five years.

It just boggles your mind. You can't even think in numbers like that. Even if you wanted to count to a billion, it would take you nineteen years day and night counting at a hundred a minute. A hundred and three billion dollars that they don't have, they're spending.
Now, I don't recommend you go out and write checks on funds you don't have. It's a crime, punishable by imprisonment. Yet, our government is doing exactly that, writing phony checks.

Actually, they're printing phony money and passing it off on you. It used to be that the currency was covered by gold. They had gold notes. Then it was covered by silver, and they had silver notes. You noticed on the old silver notes, it was redeemable in silver. But a few years ago they called in all the silver notes. The gold notes in effect said, "We owe you twenty dollars in gold." The silver notes said in effect, "We owe you ten," or "twenty," or "five dollars in silver.

" Now the notes that they give you, the Federal Reserve notes, they're not backed by anything. So in reality, it says, "We owe you nothing." Sad state of affairs. Oh, how the world needs saving. Unfortunately, government can't save us. In fact, it is government that is burying us, destroying us. We can't afford government anymore. Government has become too expensive. The same is true around the world.

Only one hope for this whole sick world. From a sociological standpoint, we look at the sociological sickness of the world, we look at the sociological sickness in the United States. We see the epidemic crime levels. We see the assaults, the murders, the rapes. No solution, no answer. We need a Savior.
Now there is coming a false savior. A man who is going to have all kinds of novel, new ideas, who will seemingly save the economy for a time.

Who will solve much of the social evils, because so many of the crimes involve money. All of the convenience stores that are robbed every night, the service stations that are robbed, and pockets that are picked and purses that are snatched, or goods that are heisted, and it all involves a monetary exchange. A guy rips off your television set and all so that he can go and sell it quickly for some money.

Gives it to a fence, and he gets money, and it's all this thing of money.
So this man is gonna come up with a fantastic solution to the social problems, many of them of a crime, by eliminating money completely. By assigning every one a mark, recognizable by a computer scanner. A mark that will be placed in the right hand or in the forehead of everybody. No one will be able to buy or sell unless they have this mark.

Did you read this week in the paper where they figure that there is between eighty and a hundred billion dollars of unpaid taxes every year from people who are skimming off the top? The government is gonna have to do something, and what better thing can you do than to get rid of money, and say, "All right if you want to buy or sell, you'll have to use the mark. No one buys or sells without a mark.

" That way they'll know every asset that you have. You won't be able to dispose of them, except that mark is used. All the exchanging will be done through the use of the mark, which, of course, will have your monetary equivalent within the computer bank, stored within the computer system.
Immediately all of the crimes involving money will be over. You can't hold up... it's all in the computer. Of course, there'll be then people who will be developing ways of tapping into the computer and all, but nonetheless, it's gonna change the crime.

It'll take a while for people to figure the new system, at least three and a half years.
So he'll come up with some economic solutions, he'll come up with some sociological solutions. All of the world is gonna begin to hail this man as its leader, as its savior. The false Messiah, the antichrist. He will even befriend the Jewish nation; make a covenant with them, whereby they will be able to rebuild their temple on the temple mount.

All of these things are in order today.
Did you know that the United States government is planning in 1984 to inaugurate a universal number system for everybody in the U.S.? We're moving down towards the line. I read this in the newspaper the other day, but I've known it for years, because one of our fellows went back to do secret work, top classified work in the Pentagon, seven years ago. He thought it was so significant he said, "Chuck, this is top classified, but," he said, "I feel I've got to tell you.

" 1984, he said, "I've been working on the program back in Washington D.C. In 1984 we've targeted to give a universal number to everyone in the U.S." All the plans are there. The other day in the paper someone let the leak out, so I'm not doing anything that I shouldn't by telling you.
How the world needs to be saved. The only hope is Jesus Christ. This man who pretends to be a savior, who the world thinks is a savior, is only going to ultimately plunge the world into the greatest chaos the world has ever known.

For three and a half years it's gonna look like peaches and cream, and then the cream is gonna sour and things are gonna really go bad.
"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee," but Jesus is then coming. He's gonna set up His kingdom; He's gonna dwell in the midst of the people. What rejoicing, what singing, what joy in those days. "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love, He will joy over thee with singing." The Lord is gonna be singing a love song to you.

Reuniré a los que están tristes por la asamblea solemne, los que son de ti, para quienes el oprobio de ella fue una carga. He aquí, en aquel tiempo deshaceré todo lo que te aflige: salvaré a la coja, recogeré a la descarriada; Les daré alabanza y fama en todas las tierras donde han sido avergonzados. En aquel tiempo os haré volver, en el tiempo que os recoja; porque os pondré por nombre y por alabanza entre todos los pueblos de la tierra, cuando haga volver vuestra cautividad delante de vuestros ojos, dice Jehová. Sofonías 3:18-20 ).

Así que la futura bendición sobre la nación de Israel en la gloriosa Era del Reino cierra la profecía de Sofonías. "